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Housing on appeal

Neighbors continue to fight apartment complex for ex-inmates

By Lillian Schrock

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, page A1

Despite a continuing legal battle over how a 54-unit housing complex for former convicts was constructed in west Eugene, the developers say they plan to host a grand opening this spring and begin renting out the apartments.

Neighbors of the Oaks at 14th apartments, at West 14th Avenue and Oak Patch Road, contend that the development was improperly configured on the site and does not follow city code. The critics say the buildings, parking lots and access lanes were arranged on the parcel in ways that violate the city code — an argument the developer rejects.

The next legal hurdle comes this week in the form of a Eugene Planning Commission public hearing. The Housing and Community Services Agency of Lane County and nonprofit Sponsors Inc., which have partnered on the project, asked the city to waive some aspects of its planning and development code so that the complex — now virtually complete — would be deemed to comply. The city agreed, with two conditions, prompting one neighbor to appeal the city’s decision.

During the hearing, the planning commission will hear from the neighbor and the developers and will take public comment. The hearing will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Sloat Room of the Atrium Building, 99 W. 10th Ave.

At the center of the legal fight is a five-building complex with 54 one-bedroom apartments designated for former criminals. Sponsors, which provides housing and job opportunities for people released from Oregon prisons and the Lane County Jail, would have a staff member and a Lane County Parole & Probation officer onsite.

The housing complex would be Lane County’s largest for former inmates. Sponsors says the housing is sorely needed. Many private landlords refuse to rent to former inmates, making it hard for them to re-integrate into society.

The neighborhood group won a small battle in December, when the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals agreed with some of the neighbors’ arguments. The neighbors had appealed the city’s approval of the project. The appeal centered on many of the same issues in the current appeal before the planning commission.

The appeal by resident Mary McCollough and the Acorn Park Community for Well-Being argued that the project violated several aspects of the city’s zoning and development code. The appeals board rejected some of the neighbors’ claims, but agreed with others. On key issues about the placement of the buildings and parking lots, the board ruled the city and the developer had either failed to show that they were complying with the development code or else failed to give legally valid grounds for deviating from the code.

The appeals board found merit in the assertion that the developer should have put the vehicle entrance to the apartment complex on West 14th Avenue rather than Oak Patch Road. The board also backed the contention that a sidewalk might be needed connecting the development to the West 14th Avenue cul-de-sac. The board also said there was merit to the critics’ argument that the buildings were built too far back from the road and had not been oriented to face outward, and that the parking lots were improperly sized and placed.

In its Dec. 21 decision, the appeals board said HACSA needed to do a better job of justifying the deviations from the code.

While the land use appeal was pending, HACSA in October submitted to the city an application for adjustment review. The nonprofit agency asked the city if it could deviate from the development code on some issues, including building orientation and space for parking. HACSA’s reasoning, according to its request, included a desire to make the complex compatible with nearby apartments and to preserve oak trees .

The city allowed the code exceptions with two conditions. The city told HACSA it had to improve the frontage on Oak Patch by installing a planting area or kiosk and that HACSA had to do a traffic study to show access from Oak Patch Road will be safe.

Last month, McCollough paid $250 to file an appeal of the city’s adjustment review decision. Eugene land use advocate Kevin Matthews, who is representing McCollough, said the city is cutting corners to grant more flexibility to the developer than the code allows.

“The purpose behind the project is … socially beneficial,” Matthews said. “But I don’t feel that a project having a good intention gives a developer carte blanche to inflict unfair impacts on the immediate neighbors. In this case, the immediate neighbors are pretty low-income, vulnerable people, and I feel like they’re really being railroaded and taken advantage of.”

Matthews said if he can’t stop the project from proceeding, he wants to lessen the harm to the neighborhood.

“We would like to see the planning commission hold the project tighter to the code,” he said.

Matthews said HACSA and Sponsors are taking on a substantial risk by continuing with the project while it’s under appeal.

All of the apartment buildings have already been constructed, and the individual units are largely complete. Contractors are painting the exterior and preparing to build the access road and parking lots.

“We’re trying to hold them to the code to mitigate the negative impacts of what they’re doing and if those impacts create some costs, it’s because of their own reckless behavior,” he said.

Steve Ochs, real estate development director at HACSA, said the organization held several public meetings in the past year to discuss neighborhood concerns and explain how the complex would look.

“We’ve been in direct contact with neighbors throughout the whole process,” Ochs said.

HACSA changed some aspects of its design based on that feedback, including installing fences along single-family homes that abut the complex.

Ochs said HACSA will give tours to neighbors and others when the construction is finished, which will be some time in March.

When HACSA first announced the housing complex, it drew opposition from neighbors who complained that it would put dozens of former convicts such as thieves and drug dealers in a neighborhood of single-family houses, apartments and a park.

After a city hearings official ruled in 2014 that the project could be built, two neighbors appealed. But they failed to raise the $1,992 fee needed to bring the issue to the city’s planning commission.

Thomas Price, who has two children and has lived in the Churchill neighborhood for 20 years, said he doesn’t think the project should be next to a park.

“No one in the near vicinity I know really wants it,” Price said.

Housing at the Oaks primarily will be for male ex-offenders who have completed months of treatment through Sponsors or Lane County Parole & Probation, said Paul Solomon, executive director of Sponsors. The nonprofit organization will prohibit anyone from living there who has been convicted of a predatory sexual offense or arson, he said.

Sponsors would prioritize putting men age 55 or older, ex-offenders with disabilities and military veterans in the units, though others could get in, too.

Tenants in the Oaks would be required to pass drug and alcohol tests.

Monthly rents would be about $450, with tenants paying through employment wages or disability income.

More than $9 million of the project’s $10 million construction cost is being paid for through federal low-income housing funds.

The Oaks at 14th

What: Eugene Planning Commission public hearing on the housing project